A Memestorm That Will Make You Think: “Wow, Trade and Investment Policy Is Inherently Gendered!”

By Cosette Creamer and Jane Lawrence Sumner | May 2, 2017

6.#Deregul…OOPS!

The Trump Administration has made reductions in regulations a priority. Deregulation can be popular, since some see regulations only as hindrances, unnecessary restrictions that slow economic growth and hurt job creation. Yet while regulations do limit what businesses can do and may cost them money, they are typically put in place to protect people, whether workers or consumers. The Administration’s stated goal of eliminating two regulations for every new regulation enacted might, then, have very negative consequences for workplace safety. These consequences may be especially deleterious for women, who are more likely to be found in occupations such as nursing, caretaking, and administration, which are not seen as “dangerous” jobs, but involve a tremendous number of injuries every year.

5. #BorderTax #CantStopWontStop #RobotUprising

The Administration aims to increase exports and reduce imports, and one lever they hope to use is a “Border Tax”. The argument is that American jobs are being shipped abroad to countries, such as Mexico, that pay lower wages, but the specifics, pros, and cons of this protectionist policy is a great mystery to most non-economists. Further, a border tax cannot stop automation, arguably a bigger threat to Americans’ jobs than inter-national wage disparities. Offshoring and automation are often seen as “men’s issues,” tied to old-fashioned manufacturing jobs, but offshoring and automation both threaten women as well.

3. #KOforTPP? #IDK.

Largely a symbolic move on the part of the Trump administration, the executive order “unsigning” the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was met by glee on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, as an opening to perhaps `Make China Great Again’. And although some feminist organizations opposed the TPP as harmful to American women’s wages, the former acting deputy U.S. Trade Representative, Wendy Cutler, praised it for including a section calling on states parties to undertake a number of cooperative activities to help women access the benefits of the agreement.